One night in Chicago
by White Firebird
Summary: When AJ loses a very drunk Kaitlyn to the streets of downtown Chicago, she panics as she tries to track her best friend down. But when a distraught Phil comes to AJ with a proposition, their lives connect in a way that wasn't thought to be possible. Now intertwined whether they like it or not, they look to find the legendary 3MB, all while finding each other.


**Hey everyone...long time no see! I wish I could properly explain my prolonged absence, but all I can really do is chalk it up to life kicking me in the balls repeatedly. But from here on out, I promise to try and be more active. Not as active as I was over the last year or so, but I'll be updating everything semi-regularly. And from that, I give you this new story I concocted one night while watching Nick & Norah's Infinte Playlist...and this came from it. I'm a bit rusty, so bear with me for the first couple of chapters, but regardless I hope you like it. Enjoy.**

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AJ kept her eyes trained on the slow moving clock in the center of the classroom. She had been staring at it on and off for the past ten minutes, patiently waiting for the hands to strike and the bells to ring, so she could pack up her things and get the hell out of here. But the clock, it was playing cruel tricks on her right now, seemingly catching on to the fact that she, along with everyone else surrounding her, wanted to go out and enjoy their weekends and not have to worry about being stuck within the confines of these same four walls again till Monday morning. Time had seemingly slowed down, almost on purpose, just to piss the entire class off. AJ was ready to leap out the window if it meant she had her freedom back for the weekend.

"Come on…come on already…please ring so this nightmare can be over…", she whispered to herself as she rapidly tapped her pen on her notepad, to the point where her professor gave her a look that told her to stop. She ignored it, of course, because she was close, oh so close…

FINALLY! The bell rang and she was out of the classroom faster than the Flash, her headphones plugged into her seashell-like ears blasting old school A Day To Remember as she scurried down the hall to the exit closest to where she parked her car. And she was almost there too. So effing close. She could almost feel her fingertips on the cool metal, until…

A smack on her ass brought her back to her little reality as she stopped to face her best friend. Her car and the subsequent joy ride home would have to wait a little bit longer than she anticipated.

"It's Friday, sweet cheeks!", Kaitlyn sang as she popped up in front of her best friend, all smiles and ready to get out and enjoy the weekend herself. "Do you know what that means? Huh, do ya? Do ya?"

AJ couldn't help but smile as she playfully pushed her overly exuberant best friend away from her, watching the two tone haired girl bounce all around the halls as fellow students whizzed by them, eager to flee their shackles and get back to their normal lives. She wished she could be with them right now, but this would have to do for now. "No, Kait, what does it mean?", she asked, knowing that if she humored her bestie, things would go a lot smoother than if she didn't.

A big smile crept across Kaitlyn's face as she threw her arm around AJ's tiny shoulders, hugging her close to her body. "You, me, downtown, duhhh! It's the weekend, which means it's time to go out and have the time of our lives!"

"I think you and me have different definitions of what the time of our lives means, Kaity Cat", AJ murmured as she pushed her glasses up to prevent them from slipping off her face. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, she sighed as she looked to her partner in crime, who kept grinning that mad grin of hers that could only lead to no good. "If we're doing this, you have to promise me that—"

"That I won't get drunk and leave you all by yourself all night, yes, I know mother, thank you for the reminder", Kaitlyn responded with, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, but still maintaining the grin on her lips as she thought about their previous escapades through downtown Chicago. "Honestly though, when have I ever done that?", she asked, knowing it'd get a rise out of her pint sized best friend.

AJ didn't say anything, instead giving her an incredulous, almost bewildered look, her eye twitching slightly as she shook her head and let a small chuckle escape her lips. She couldn't believe she was signing herself up for another night of minion duties, doing her best to check out the punk rock scene of Chicago all while trying to make sure her best friend didn't end up in the back of another band's tour van or something like that. Oh the life she lived.

Before she could say anything else, however, Kaitlyn had wrapped her in a fierce bear hug, damn near tossing her around like a rag doll, before releasing the hold she had and smiling a megawatt smile. "Well, I'll text you later with the details, bitch. See ya tonight!"

Composing herself and making sure she hadn't dropped anything from her bag or pockets, AJ shook her head and halfheartedly smiled. "Yeah, I'll see you later, Kait. And please, don't do anything too crazy tonight! I don't think I can handle it!", she called out to her departing best friend, who waved her hand, as if to say 'Yeah, whatever'.

She sighed. She had a long, long night ahead of her. And all she wanted to do was get to her car and go home…

AJ looked herself over in the mirror for what felt like the millionth time in the past five minutes. She had chosen a rather conservative, if not downright geeky look for tonight. Her glasses remained glued to her face as she messed around with her hair. She smiled proudly at the Batman shirt she was wearing underneath her black, red and white unbuttoned flannel, but the smile quickly turned to a frown as she looked down at her jeans, then to the pair of shorts resting on her bed. It was getting warmer out, seeing as it was the middle of May and summer was right around the corner…and Kait did say how great her ass looked in them (granted she was drunk, but a compliment, however crude, was still a compliment)…but then she thought back to the last time she wore them, how Kait nearly devoured some unlucky bastard who tried to get touchy feely with her…

"Oh what the hell", she whispered to herself as she shrugged her jeans off and threw the shorts on. "It's not like anyone's gonna be looking my direction tonight, if Kait is gonna be super drunk again." Grabbing her knee high Chuck's and lacing them up, she sighed contentedly as her outfit was now finished. "All I'm missing is one of those silly trucker hats that Kait likes to wear and I could be her mini me", she said as she heard her phone buzzing with a text. What she saw next just about made her eyes pop out of her head.

3MB might be playing somewhere downtown! We have to find them!

For a second AJ thought her eyes were betraying her. How was this even possible? 3MB hated publicity, and because of that, they were beloved by pretty much the entire underground Chicago punk rock scene. Their shows were legendary, but they were also incredibly hard to find, and thusly if you ever attended one, it would stay with you for the rest of your life.

"How did you find this out?", she typed out and said to herself as she sent her reply back, eagerly awaiting a response. When Kaitlyn responded, she opened the text and groaned. Of course she had heard it from her, of all people. It just had to be her, AJ thought to herself as she sighed heavily.

"Whatever, just meet me at the train station in twenty", she replied as she sent the text, grabbing her wallet and keys as she walked out of her room and down the steps to the front door. If she was going to be there, then it was going to be a rather unpleasant time. It wasn't so much that AJ hated her…there was a strong, mutual dislike between the two of them, but it hadn't yet evolved to hatred. Yet being the key word there.

But right now, it didn't matter, AJ thought to herself. For all she knew, that evil little girl might not even be where she and Kait were going to be tonight. The fact that 3MB could be playing a show anywhere downtown was more than enough for her to get excited and enjoy herself tonight, Kaitlyn's drunken escapades (and there would be plenty of them, of that she was sure) be damned.

However, this being AJ and this being her life and her stellar luck, the first thing she saw when she got to the train station was Kaitlyn emptying a flask of what looked like cheap vodka into a Gatorade bottle. She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her long tresses. It was only 6:45 and her best friend was halfway to being hammered. Of course.

"This will all pay off in the end, this will all pay off in the end, this will all pay off in the end…"

No sooner than the two girls had arrived at Lincoln Hall did Kait immediately rush off to the bar so she could start prowling for whoever she deemed worthy of her attention, naturally leaving AJ to herself. Shaking her head, she shuffled through the seemingly endless wave of people before she found herself right in front of the stage, where the opening act was getting their stuff set up. She felt someone bump into her, and, turning around to give them a piece of her mind, her features softened when she saw who it was.

"Seth!", she exclaimed happily as she gave the man in question a hug.

"April! What's up?", he said, returning the hug and giving her a friendly peck on the cheek. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"That's because you haven't. But I'm here now, so that's what counts!", she responded with a slight laugh as she adjusted her glasses. "Where are Dean and Roman at? I wanna see them before I have to drag Kait out of here again", she added, looking over her shoulder at her best friend, who had quite the crowd forming around her at the bar already.

Seth looked around for his fellow bandmates, before picking them out at the bar as they scared all the boys surrounding Kait, much to her dismay. He waved them down and they were quickly there, bear hugging poor AJ nearly to death. She didn't mind though; Seth, Dean and Roman were like big brothers to her, having known them since she was a freshman and they were juniors.

"So what time does…what are you guys calling yourselves this time?", she asked the three of them, hoping to catch their set before Kait got too drunk.

"We've been toying around with a few names", Dean said in his raspy drawl. "The Hounds of Justice was one of them…"

"The Shield of Justice was another", Roman added in his deep, booming voice. "The Hounds…"

"I personally like The Shield. It's simple and to the point. But that's just my opinion", he said with a wry grin, shooting looks at his partners in crime. Dean and Roman both nodded their heads in agreement, grins of their own spreading across their lips.

"That settles it then. From now on, we're gonna be known as The Shield", Dean said, sticking his fist out for his bandmates to bump, grinning madly as if her were the Joker.

"Believe that", Seth said, bumping Dean's fist.

"And believe in The Shield…we're up!", Roman exclaimed as the three of them gave AJ quick embraces before heading toward the stage, like the pack of bloodhounds they were dressed in all black. AJ waved goodbye to them as they jumped on stage, before turning her attention back to Kait back at the bar, and the still growing crowd of boys circling her. Of course.

Making her way to her best friend, AJ waded through the throng of sexed up beefcakes before something caught her eye. "Oh shit", she whispered harshly to herself as she ducked behind one particularly huge dude, trying to use him as a veil to hide herself. Peeking around the guy's massive arms, she saw her; Beth. She groaned as the blond haired Amazonian girl walked into the bar with her newest hanger-on, Mike, or as he called himself, 'The Miz', because of his dumb last name.

"April! Hi, April!"

Her eyes widened in fear and shock; how had she been made? Cringing, she slowly turned around and came face to chest with Beth and her sleazy new boy toy. For as long as she could remember, she had never been a fan of Beth and her man-eating ways. It was just her overall bitchiness that turned her off from ever trying to be civil with her. It also didn't help that Beth took every chance she could to crack jokes about her height and her nerdy demeanor. "Hi, Elizabeth", she said tightly, forcing a smile.

"What brings you here, April?", Beth returned in a disgustingly sweet, fake tone. "What brought you out of your geek cave for tonight? Playing mother hen again?"

She knew Beth was looking over her at the bar at Kait, who was currently sucking face with who looked like a stagehand. AJ groaned and went to go intervene, but thankfully, she saw that Roman, Dean and Seth had finished their set and were back to patrolling the bar, shooing the guys away from her. Seth gave her a wink from his position and she nodded her thankfulness. "Looks like you have your…bodyguards, to thank right now", she heard Beth add unnecessarily.

"They're not my bodyguards, they're my friends. There's a big difference…not that you'd know what it's like to have friends, but still", AJ shot back with as she made a beeline for Kait at the bar, knowing that it was time to go and just happy to get away from Beth for the moment.

Wading through the crowd, she reached her destination and was she ever glad that Roman, Dean and Seth had reached Kait before anything else had happened. AJ snickered to herself at the state her best friend was currently in. She had done this routine a thousand times before, and despite vowing each time that this would never happen again, it happened again. And if she was being honest with herself, she kinda liked having to be Kait's guardian angel, so to speak. It gave her a purpose.

"What would you do without me, Kaity Cat?", she asked, though it was more to herself than anyone else. Looking to the newly christened Shield, she went to say something but Dean beat her to the punch.

"Of course we'll help, it's the least we could do", he said in his raspy voice as he grabbed a hold of Kait's left arm and slung it over his shoulder, while Roman did the same with her other arm. "We got this, baby doll", he added, winking as his massive muscles flexed and shone in the lights.

But as AJ trailed behind the Shield, she wasn't looking and ended up bumping into someone, taking a bit of a hard tumble to the beer stained floor, her glasses being knocked astray. Scrambling to grab them before someone stepped on and broke them, she saw them being handed to her as she stood up. Gratefully grabbing them and sliding them back onto her face, she went to thank whoever it was that had saved her from blindness but had to stop herself when she caught a good look at him.

He had dark brown, almost black hair that was hanging over his eyes. He had facial hair styled like he was Wolverine, and to her that was pretty awesome. Dark, heavy bags were under his eyes, indicating that he didn't sleep at all, or very little for that matter. His arms, from what she could see, were covered in tattoos, which led her to believe he had even more of them across his body. And to top it off, he was wearing a H2O hoodie and a Rancid shirt, so he instantly had good taste in music. But what he asked caught her completely off guard.

"Hey, wanna be my girlfriend for ten minutes?"

How could she say no?

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**And that is that. I'll update everything else soon. Thanks again for reading!**


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